I’ve been on maternity leave for the past 9 months which explains the lack of activity on my blog 🙂 . I don’t return to work officially until June but now that my beautiful baby girl is a little bit older I’m getting some time to do bits and pieces of research – yeah!
Just spent the morning catching up on all the news from the library community. The most exciting of which (I think) is that Lauren Smith has been nominated as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker 2011.
Lauren’s done some amazing work over the past year, including campaigning tirelessly to Save Doncaster Libraries and working as co-ordinator and spokesperson for the excellent Voices for the Library campaign . The future for public libraries in the UK looks brighter thanks to people like Lauren! 🙂
A full list of Movers and Shakers 2011 can be found here.
Welcome back, Christine! Lovely to see an update from you in my RSS feeds 🙂
Hi Jo
Great to be back. Iris is with my sister today so I’m able to get some more work done again – yay! 🙂 Hope you’re well x
Good to see the L of D back.
I can’t make up my mind about the Save … Love … campaigns. (I can about Hug … it was stupid). One the one hand there is some terrific, passionate work being done at a local level to show impact and value. On the other …. you Save endangered species, or crumbling buildings, you Love pandas, or orphans, or Millport. Do you have to Love and Save services and institutions which are intrinsic to C21 society? I wonder and worry about the message that is being put out.
Tend to think that focus ought to be on “you wouldn’t believe what we do”: a sustained – as in months and years – campaign to show what actually happens and what that means. An all year round libraries change lives, but not aimed at librarians.
Also tend to think much, much better done at UK level.
Hi Ken
I think you make a valid point and I do agree with you to a certain extent. However, the reality is that our 21st century media expects slogans and sound bites to make good news stories and to drive circulation /readership. It makes for a better headline if something is in ‘danger’ and needs’saving’. Also, I tend to think that such language makes those involved feel more passionate about their cause; and encourages those reading about it to respond emotionally rather than in a passive manner. But I do agree with your point that we should also be communicating a more positive message. And I think there are a lot of bloggers and journalists out there trying to do this. Unfortunately, like you pointed out yourself, we often fall into the trap of only telling each other about the fantastic things libraries do and fail to communicate our value to a wider audience. Which I think is a trap that you and I might have fallen into here… 🙂
Hi Christine
I wondered why things had went quiet on your blog… congratulations!!
Cheers, Archie
Thanks Archie! 🙂